Designing the temporary dental clinic in the Covid-19 global pandemic

Covid-19 pandemic has directed hospitals to concentrate services for patients who are positive or still in undefined status. Some countries are even forced to build temporary structures or utilize multifunctional buildings such as sports/public halls. On the other hand, hospitals still have to keep performing other routine services and this becomes a challenge for them. When global attention nowadays focuses more on how hospitals serve the Covid-19 cases, this research proposes another side of healthcare service needed by people in the pandemic, which is the dental clinic. The spread of Covid-19 through droplets puts both dental patients and practitioners at risk target of Covid-19 transmission. Therefore, particular standards and protocols are mandatory to be deployed. A prototype design of the temporary dental clinic is the main output from this research. The main objective is to provide service for the community without being afraid of contracting the pandemic as the clinic will be isolated from the regular hospital buildings. To achieve this objective, this research employed three approaches for the methodology. It was started with the desk study to review references on recent technology of temporary building structures. Followed by the online questionnaire using the Google platform distributed to 206 registered dental practitioners in Aceh, in collaboration with the Indonesian Dental Association, Aceh Province, Indonesia. The questionnaire collected the data related to the needs, standards, procedures, and dental service protocols under the Covid-19 pandemic as the main reference for the design process. The last approach was gathering feedback from dentists and international architects who are experts in building science and technology. This was done through a series of pre-design reviews. This research has a high degree of urgency globally, including Saudi Arabia, which is also impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic. It is also in line with Saudi Vision 2030 to enhance the standard quality and sustainability of healthcare services. The prototype design proposed in this research does not only contribute to the Covid-19 pandemic in particular but also post-Covid scenarios or other possible global pandemics in the future.